Browserify can't be used with `tabs.executeScript`

I get this error in the console:

Error: Script returned non-structured-clonable data

You can test it by browserify-ing an empty file and then using browser.runtime.executeScript to attempt to add it to a page.

Webpack’s module wrapping code doesn’t seem to have this issue.

[BigBlueHat]

@derwaldgeist use two executeScript’s…one for the dependency and one for your applications code that’s formatted in a way to do the return.

Alternatively, you can avoid the who return value thing (which feels very awkward most days…) and use postMessage() and friends.

Oh! and one other possible solution for using a single executeScript the uses require and browserify is to wrap the whole thing in an immediate called function with a return value. Then you get both clarity and lack of cumbersomeness (or…at least less cumbersomeness 😄).

For example…inject.js:

(function() {
  const nifty = require('...');
  return nifty(true);
})();

But then…you may still hit that “structured clonable” thing and have to do some type coercion and such, but at least it’s more obvious than ending your code with a variable name all by its lonesome.

Hope that helps! 🎩

[wbamberg]

Closing this, as it’s not a bug in the examples in this repo specifically.